(o^ 



R4 



L- 



*?>! 



ADDRESS 



©EE,r VERB D BEFOR 



E THE ASSOCIATION OF THEALtTMNI 



COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 



(P\V^-<^ZJt^_ ^ 



J 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED 



BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 



AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY, MAY 4, 1831. 



/ 



JAMES R. MANLEY, M. D. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REaUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



NEW-YORK : 

G. & C. & H. CARVILL. 



M,DCCC,XXXI. 



U} 






■A 



NEW-yoRK : 

LUDWIG & TOJLEFREE, PRINTERS, 
No. 72, Vesey-street. 



New- York, May 4, 1831. 

To James R. Manley, M.D. 

Dear Sir, — It gives us much pleasure, in pursu- 
ance of the object of our appointment as a Committee of the 
Alumni of Columbia College, to tender you their thanks for your 
address, delivered before them, this day, in the College Chapel, 
and to request a copy of the same for publication. 

We remain, dear Sir, 

Very respectfully and sincerely, yours, 

Benj. T. Onderdonk, 
Samuel W. Moore, 
Robert M'Cartee. 



May 7, 1831. 

Gentlemen, — 

I have received your note expressive of the satisfaction of 
the Alumni with my address, deUvered in the Chapel of Columbia 
College, on Wednesday last, accompanied by a request that I 
would furnish a copy for publication ; I with pleasure accede to 
their wishes, only regretting that it is not better entitled to this 
flattering notice. 

Accept for yourselves my acknowledgments for the very kind 
manner in which you have been pleased to convey this expression 
of their partiahty. 

I am yours, very respectfully, 

James R. Manley. 

To the Right Rev. Benj, T. Onderdonk, 
Samuel W. Moore, M. D. 
Rev> Robert M'Cartee. 



ADDRESS 



Invited to addi-ess you on the present occasion, I should justly 
be considered unworthy of the honour, if I could be indifferent 
to the duty. I have been preceded, in this agreeable service, ])y 
elder members of this institution, whose characters, learning, 
talents, and devotion to the sacred cause of literature and sci- 
ence have imposed on me an obligation which I will most rea- 
dily acknowledge, though I must confess my inability fully to 
discharge : if zeal in the cause of education, attachment to our 
Alma Mater, and a jealous concern for her interests and her 
honour, will be received as an apology for this address, it is most 
respectfully tendered. 

The pleasures of recollection are of a class extremely select 
and sacred ; they are almost the only sources of delight which 
are exempt from unpleasant accompaniment, and their enjoy- 
ment would seem to be in pretty exact ratio to the measure of 



retrospection. Those drawn from the scenes of our yoiithj are 
delightful above all others, because that is the season when 
our cares bear no assignable proportion to our pleasures. Like 
the landscape at sunrise, the Hght is so disproportionate to the 
shade, and yet so well tempered with it, that every incident ap- 
pears in full rehef ; and while we contemplate the picture, no- 
thing escapes the eye of observation, which possesses sufficient 
magnitude or interest to make an impression on the senses. 

The impressions made upon our senses in youth, are far 
more enduring than those of after life, and they possess another 
peculiarity, difficult of explanation on ordinary principles of 
moral reasoning : when called up by recollection, they are 
found to possess all the freshness of colouring, and can excite 
all the intensity of interest which ever belonged to them ; as if 
Providence, by this benign appointment, had designed them to 
be the solace of riper and sadder years. Be the causes what 
they may, our individual experience bears testimony to their 
power, and it is our privilege, this day, to participate in their 
enjoyment. 

We do not meet in obedience to a custom, honoured 
simply because it is old, or respected because it is prescrib- 
ed ; or as the adherents of a sect to canvass the interests of 
a party : but prompted by motives which we need not avow 
because we cannot disguise them, we assemble as the mem- 
bers of one family, the individuals of which have been long 
separated by necessity, to interchange those expressions of 
kindly feeling, which originated in the unrestrained and inti- 
mate communion of our youth, luider circumstances, above all 



others calculated to develope the best affections of our nature, 
and which the busy scenes of active life can only interrupt, but 
can never destroy. Such a meeting, while it affords the high- 
est species of gratification to ourselves, presents the opportunity 
of tendering the homage of unfeigned respect to our Alma Ma- 
ter, and of evincing how utterly impossible it is, that ingratitude 
should be the vice of education. The attachment of a graduate 
to the institution in which he has been educated, is nearly al- 
lied to that which subsists between a ward and liis guardian, 
with this difference, however, in its favour — that gratitude in 
the one case, may, by reciprocity of benefits, lose its distinctive 
character, and the benefactor and beneficiary, by change of 
circumstances, may frequently change their relations ; a condi- 
tion which cannot be anticipated as probable in the other. The 
obhgations of a pupil are as permanent and as binding at any 
one period as at another, because he does not possess the ability 
to cancel the bond ; nor, indeed, if he did, would he be called 
upon to do it : an aclaiowledgment then is surely due, where 
nothing but an acknowledgment can be accepted. 

We meet as members of an institution who have been pe- 
culiarly privileged : with very few exceptions it may be empha- 
tically said of us, that we have been nursed at home ; we 
have been bred in the bosoms of our own families ; our educa- 
tion has been conducted without that necessary rebate which 
attends the separation of the student from his natural friends ; 
the exercise of those virtues of the heart which are the peculiar 
growth of the domestic circle, was not suspended during the 
term of our pupilage ; but, while we profited by the prelections 



10 



of our teachers, we possessed all the advantages which parental 
wisdom could suggest, or affection recommend ; and we sub- 
mitted to all the wholesome restraints which its authority could 
impose at a time when they were most required. What such 
advantages are, none can truly know but those who have been 
taught their value by their experience. 

The culture of the affections is wholly of a domestic charac- 
ter ; home is the garden in which they are planted ; there 
they must be nursed, cherished, and protected, from the too 
early frosts of the world's atmosphere : the heart must be gradu- 
ally exposed, that it may be gradually inured to the chill tem- 
perature to which it must necessarily be abandoned in the or- 
dinary course of God's providence, when the affectionate re- 
straints of parents and guardians are withdrawn. 

The fireside lecture of an intelhgent mother, or a discreet fa- 
ther, suggested by duty, enforced by affection, and illustrated 
by the anecdote which their own experience, or the annals of 
the neighbourhood can furnish, is worth a thousand cold and 
abstract disquisitions upon the beauty of virtue, or the deformity 
of vice ; — each story is a lesson ; each lesson is a law, whose 
sanctions address themselves to the best feelings of our nature, 
for parental love is the legislator, and filial attachment is the 
bond of obedience : these invaluable privileges we have enjoy- 
ed, and although they have aggravated our responsibilities, it 
must be confessed, that they are calculated to increase the mea- 
sure of our gratitude. 

I know not what others may think of the relation of an alum- 
nus to his Alma Mater, for it is impossible to submit the ques- 



11 



lion to calculation ; but, for myself, I can truly say, that there 
are but two debts which I acknowledge my utter inability to 
discharge ; the one to my samted mother, who, thuty-five 
years since was called to take her place among God's chosen 
ones, and the other to this institution, in the hall of which we 
are now assembled ; one formed my heart, the other my under- 
standmg ; one taught me w^hat duty was, the other enabled 
me to fulfil its obligations ; thus leavmg me without excuse, if 
my will is deaf to the calls of affection, or rebellious to the dic- 
tates of a cultivated reason. 

Improvement of mind, acquired at the expense of the heart, 
is dearly purchased, be its amount what it may ; nothing which 
this vforld can afford, be the price never so great, can compen- 
sate for the deficiency of parental instruction. 

I feel that I am called upon, though accidentally, to insist 
strongly on this fiindamental principle of education : — mothers 
make men ; and that mother as much mistakes her interest as 
her duty, who devolves upon others, however well they may 
be quahfied for the task, the immense responsibilities which 
heaven intended she should herself assume. I have no dispo- 
sition (and if I had, I ought in tliis place to repress it) to contend 
with a prejudice which usage has rendered inveterate, and 
wkich fashion assists to pei-petuate ; it has lasted too long to be 
successfiilly opposed ^\dthout an appeal to conscience, and I only 
urge that parents would ask themselves one question, and 
permit conscience alone to answer : — Has duty or conveni- 
ence most agency in sending their children abroad for 
their education 7 



12 



The place in which we are now assembled, was the asylum 
of our youth • these walls which have so often echoed to our 
mirthful jests, that verdant lawn, which has been the scene of 
our healthful sports, those majestic trees, which have defied the 
storms of almost a century, and grown vigorous by their expo- 
sure ; nay, the rude outline which the sun traces upon the case- 
ment as it shines through their foliage, all combine to call up 
the recollection of those halcyon days, when the past had for 
us no regrets, the present no cares, and the future, no sources 
of sohcitude. We have arrived at one of those ^' green spots 
on memory's waste," one of those delightful resting-places, 
which, as we journey through this world's dark wilderness, are 
occasionally to be found by the way-side, where travellers may 
refresh themselves in the noon-tide of a laborious day, and com- 
pare their experience, so varied in its circumstances, yet so simi- 
lar in its results. From this point, we may rapidly retrace our 
different courses on hfe's chequered chart ; for, from this point, 
some ten, twenty, thirty, forty, nay, fifty years ago, we un- 
moored our little barks fully freighted with expectation, to 
tempt the dangers of life's stormy sea. What rocks, what 
sands, what tempests, what hidden shoals have wrecked the 
argosies of many of our companions, we will not now inquire ; 
those of us who have arrived thus far on our voyage, know 
from our experience that which it might have been well to have 
known earlier ; w^e have lost a large part of our original lading, 
but we have gained nothing more substantial in exchange ; 
'tis expectation still ! so true is it, that " man never is, but 
always to be blest ;" so true is it, that happiness is pursuit and 
not possession. 



13 



But the mixed character of my audience counsels me to 
change this theme ; it is too selfish and too exckisive to interest 
all who honom" me with their attention. 

Although, on an occasion like this, there can be httle diffi- 
culty in selecting topics for an address, yet there are some which 
are peculiarly appropriate, and among them all such as are natu- 
rally connected wdth education, would appear to claim a prefer- 
ence. I shall, therefore, offer a few remarks on this subject, 
obviously not chosen on account of its novelty, for perhaps no 
branch of economical science for the last half century has been 
more thoroughly canvassed, both in Europe and America, with 
a view to its improvement. I can scarcely hope to offer any 
thing new, nor indeed do I flatter myself that I shall ; I have 
made choice of il rather for the opportunity it may afford to sug- 
gest the necessity of a recurrence to old principles and old plans 
of education ; such as have heretofore been found most suc- 
cessful in qualifying all who desire to be distinguished as men 
of letters, and who possess the necessary amount of genius and 
appUcation. I trust that the interest which natm'ally attaches 
to the subject, will fully compensate for its want of novelty. 

It would be an agreeable employment, if om* time allowed, 
to trace the progress of science by the light which it has shed on 
its own pathway, from its first dawning in eastern Africa, to its 
noonday splendours in Greece ; to watch its reflected Ught 
kindlmg in the west, and shining with a brilUancy which rival- 
led the source whence it was derived, when in the reigns of the 
first Ceesars the seat of empire was justly celebrated as the mis- 
tress of the world, alike renowned in arts and in arms ; to con- 



14 



template with a melancholy, though intense interest, its varied 
fortunes ; to witness at one time a ferocious and stupid bigotry 
maldng bonfires of the collected wisdom of ages, and at another, 
bowing in abject awe before the knave whose magic wisdom 
perchance was but the transcript of a leaf stolen from the 
flames ; to mark, with a solicitude increasing as the dark clouds 
of ignorance successively obscured its glory, the feeble attempts 
made from time to time, to gather up the materials which had 
formerly constituted her temple ; and to discover occasionally 
through the grated lattice of a monastery, her glimmering 
lights, which served only to render humanity conscious of its 
loss, shining dimly amid the mists which seemed to envelope 
the world : but this portrait, which I could only hope rudely to 
imitate, has been frequently drawn by the hands of masters, 
and the great outlines of the picture are familiar to all who 
hear me. 

Nor can it be necessary at this time of day, and more espe- 
cially in this place, to eulogize the subject of general educa- 
tion. The history of every civilized community presents no- 
thing more nor less than a series of its triumphs over prejudice 
and ignorance : it has not only been an instrument, but em- 
phatically the instrument, nay, the alone agent of all the 
changes from barbarism to refinement, which have marked the 
progress of society. By its influence has the dominion of pas- 
sion, in all ages, been subjected to the guidance of reason, and 
to it, controlled by an intelligent conscience, which acknowledges 
God in his written word, as well as in his providence, are we 
indebted for all which can render life desirable. It is unneces- 



15 



sary to sketch the aspects of society in its various mutations, in 
order to prove that to be true which can need no illustration ; 
no person can be ignorant, that the tinie has been, when the 
attributes of distinction, to which men aspired, w^ere those, and 
those only, which belong to brutes : and heraldry, as a science, 
to this hour bears its testimony, that strength, agility, cunning, 
courage, cruelty, and ferocity, were the badges of eminence 
which the great ones of the earth exerted themselves to win 
and to wear. The time was, when all the man, all that can 
distinguish him from the lower orders of creation, his intellec- 
tual and moral faculties, w^ere yielded, ^vithout a struggle, to 
the only two enemies of his happiness, ignorance and supersti- 
tion ; and the thraldom would have existed to this hour, but 
for the influence of education. 

There are two or three considerations of a general nature, to 
wliich I shall invite your attention, although they have been 
frequently insisted on ; but theii' importance is theii* apology. 
I am not sure that my remarks will meet the unquaHfied as- 
sent of all those who hear me, as I may come in contact ^vith 
prejudices which have been too long indulged by the best men 
in the community to be readily dispelled ; but I trust that I 
have too much veneration for the motives of such men not to 
accord to them the full measure of credit to which they are 
justly entitled. I will make no attempt, however, to excuse 
the opinions which I may offer, since, if the remarks are war- 
rantable, none can be required ; and if they are not, none 
Avhich I could make would so change theii* character as to ren- 
der them such. 



16 



In a national point of view, the diffusion of education is es- 
sentially connected with the stability of all political institutions. 
It is the lever of Archimedes, by which, so far as human 
means can avail, the earth is moved : it forms the only solid 
foundations on which empires can rest, and promises the only 
security for their continuance. Without its influence, revolu- 
tion may roll on revolution, " tiU time shall be no longer," and 
continue to shake to their centres, the proud domains of tyranny 
and oppression ; but humanity can gain nothing by the con- 
flicts, unless moral strength can maintain what physical force 
may acquire, like the ocean in a storm, lashing the sea-beat 
shore, each wave, by its reflux, but adds force to its successor ; 
and, when the tempest abates, a military despotism is the pUlow^ 
on which the exhausted energies of a nation will be found to 
repose. The oppressed may pour out their blood as if it were 
water in the cause of freedom ; but it will only fertilize the soil 
of the oppressor : despotism may be occa jionally checked ; but 
only to give place to the most terrific forms of anarchy, ren- 
dermg present suffering so much more intolerable than that 
from which they prayed dehverance, that power alone, and 
uncontrolled by law, will be a refuge. This is the experience 
of our own times ; the fact is spread upon ahnost every page 
of authentic history ; the experiment, while I am speaking, is 
in course of trial for the thousandth time, upon an immense 
scale, to be attended with the same results ; and the conviction 
of its truth will teach us the utter impotence of all human 
means to meliorate the condition of humanity without its 
assistance. 



17 



We are the only nation of the earth wliich revokuion has 
blessed ; and it concerns us especially, that we do not riot on 
its benefits, in place of improving them to onr permanent ad- 
vantage. In this country, where the laws of the land are but 
the registry of public opinion, and where its restraints operate 
only on those who framed them, it is essential that education 
should be protected, and that its diffusion should be secm'ed by 
all the reasonable patronage which the law can extend. Ac- 
cordingly we find, both in the general and state governments, 
that its interests are among those which receive a laige portion 
of legislative attention ; for, it is as absurd to believe, that an 
intelligent community can be deprived of its pohtical rights, as 
it is to suppose that an ignorant population can acquire or pre- 
serve them. The ^\^sdom of oiu own state legislature, in rela- 
tion to this all-important interest, wliich is in fact, the vis con- 
servatrix of the body pohtic, is om* pride as well as our protec- 
tion : a patronage which is progressively increasmg, and 
which, even now, extends its benefits to more than half a mil- 
lion of our youth, is a bond for the continuance of our political 
blessings, the secmity of which no human contingency can im- 
pair. But apart fi'om the pohtical considerations, which recom- 
mend to our interest, as well as enforce as a duty, the exten- 
sion of the means of education, we have a right to assume, and 
upon authority which may not be questioned, that it is the 
most effectual preventive check to the growth of immorality. 
I will not say that purity of morals exists in proportion to the 
cultivation of mtellect, although other things being equal, if we 
can suppose such a case, the position could not be successfully 



18 



controverted ; there can be no question, however, that its direct 
tendency is to operate an exemption from the grosser vices, by 
infusing a measure of self-respect, which education alone can 
impart, and by furnishing material for the continued employ- 
ment of the mind ; thus rendering sensual pleasure less essen- 
tial to human happiness. We cannot be ignorant, and if in- 
formed, we cannot be indifferent, to the success of the efforts 
now made to arrest the progress of that great moral epidemic, 
which is in all countries, the almost necessary consequence of 
ignorance and idleness : but much as our feelings may be in- 
terested in the result, we should never lose sight of the causes of 
evils which we are striving to remove. 

I trust that I shall be understood : it would give me pain to 
think, that in this address, I should say one word that might 
check the ardour, or diminish the zeal of any who are engaged 
in this great work ; an evil so general, so inveterate, and 
withal so contagious in its influence, cannot be too fully ex- 
posed ; its causes cannot be too minutely explored, nor its reme- 
dies too much multipHed. The cup which Cu'ce gave to the 
companions of Ulysses, was so drugged by the sorceress, that it 
changed their natures ; they were converted into sv/ine ; but 
the cup of which we speak, possesses a malignancy so much 
more vb'ulent, that the extravagance of the fable presents but 
a faint illustration of the fact. Its disastrous effects, compared 
with the fabled desolation of the poisonous tree of Java, make 
this appear the truth, and that the fiction ; its malignant influ- 
ence curdles the milk of human sympathy, and converts the 
silken cords of closest kindred into chains more weighty and 



19 



more galling than those which bind the galley-slave. No moral 
blight, which can be engendered by vice and indolence, involves 
a curse so comprehensive ; but, while the vrhole catalogue of 
crime foUows in its train, it affords the most iiTefragable proof 
of man's high destiny, and the elevation which the mind may 
attain, by the due improvement and direction of those ceaseless 
energies, which cannot be controlled but by the fatal anod}Tie. 

I have said, that our happiness consists in pm'suit, and not 
in possesssion ; — if so, employment is the means, and the only 
means, by which to attain it : we may talk of contentment, 
but it is only another name : it is impossible to know the 
meaning of the term in connexion wdth idleness ; and idleness 
and ignorance are by necessity allied. The operations of mind 
are as constant, except only during the season of sleep, as is the 
circulation of the blood : and they are tedious, I would almost 
say painful, if they are not dii'ected to some object sufficiently- 
important to fasten attention ; and, miless some such ob- 
ject presents itself, men are prone to beguile iiiQir anxieties about 
nothings by recourse to ph5^sical exercise, which soon fatigues ; 
or to the pleasures of mere sense, which soon pall upon the appe- 
tite ; and in failure of these sources of relief, to quiet a restless 
state of mind by lulling it to sleep. This is human nature 
left to itself, and unsupported by those aids wliich nothing but 
education can furnish ; and the proofs are as abundant as they 
ai*e conclusive. Those who possess but the wTeck of former 
intellect, nay, those who never possessed enough of the reason- 
ing faculty to enable them to balance the most simple evidence, 
testify its truth ; for the records of the idiot, as well as of the 



20 



insane, show, that all have an ahuost instinctive appetite for 
substances calculated to stimulate or stupify. 

There is scarcely a country on which the sun shines, where 
the ingenuity of man has not exerted all its inventive powers, to 
furnish materials of a similar character 5 and those have always 
been most successful to whom nature has been most bountiful, 
and to whom the means of subsistence were most plenteously 
distributed : an evil so extensive in its influence, must have 
some common origin. 

Our observation abounds with facts calculated to confirm 
the position, that occupation is the desideratum which men 
must seek in order to oppose a successful resistance to this de- 
vastating pestilence. Example may do much, fashion much 
more ; we may superadd the obligations of conscience ; but 
all will not avail without the aids of employment, and employ- 
ment itself is but a partial preventive, unless intelligence come 
in aid of it. To expect to bind an ignorant conscience, setting 
aside the questionable policy in a moral point of view, of re- 
quiring conscience to do the v/ork of common sense ; like the 
fabled attempts to destroy the Lernsean Hydra, will all fail : 
you may strike off one head, but the eschar w^ill give origin to 
two, in place of the one excised. In order to give efficient as- 
sistance in this great work, it must be enlightened, it must be 
intelhgent ; it must not only recognize its duty, but it must 
feel its interest ; for the time must come, unless premature 
disease, violence, or accident prevent ; when the external senses 
will cease to be the avenues of enjoyment, and the mind must 
be thrown upon its own resources. The narrow sphere of our 



21 



own observation, presents abundant testimony to show the im- 
potence of all means, short of a well disciplined inteUect, to ren- 
der existence tolerable in such circumstances. 

It will be obvious that the preventive means of which I speak, 
have respect to the quality, more than to the amount of acquire- 
ment ; since, if it were otherwise, a very small minority could 
participate in its benefits. The gi-eat end to be kept in view, 
therefore, in all plans of education, is the necessity of inspiring 
a love for science, of infusing a spirit of inquiry, and a thirst for 
information, which ordinary obstacles will neither repress nor 
destroy. If this point be attained, the mind may, with perfect 
safety, be left to rely upon its own powers ; for eveiy step 
which it advances, wliile it enlarges its field of ^dew, increases 
its capacity to prosecute the journey. On this subject, I am 
sorry to say, there is much difference of opinion, and, I fear 
much mistake. It would seem, that education is by many 
considered simply as a necessary preparation for the business 
of active life; as an ordeal necessary to be passed in order to qua- 
lify for social usefulness. That it is so. is true ; but, that 
these are its only uses, is an error too pregnant with disastrous 
consequences to be permitted to pass without the mark of un- 
qualified reprobation. If man had been sent into this world 
to struggle for his maintenance, merely to five, but not to enjoy, 
and, after a certain time, to drop into the grave, unconscious of 
his future destiny, it might have its apology ; but he is born 
for a nobler purpose ; his being is a preparation for a state 
where life shall be aU intellect : he must be educated for his 
oion sake, as well as for his fellovv^s : his own company he can- 



22 



not avoid, and he must be so qualifiedj that communion with 
himself shall never fatigue. 

The unhappy effects of education, restricted in its applica- 
tion to the concerns of business, are too serious and too glaring 
to escape the most cursory observation. The success of men 
thus instructed, is, for the most part, their misfortune. 

Evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis 
Dii faciles — 

says Juvenal, in his inimitable satire on the vanity of human 
wishes ; and the text is illustrated by every day's experience. 
It was to such persons it was intended to apply ; men, who 
think that education is necessary, 'tis true ; but no more of it 
than will qualify the possessor for his commerce with the 
world, and who consider it in the light of an apprenticeship to 
a trade ; — men, whose whole desire is wealth. 

Prima fere vota, et cunctis notissima templis 
Divitise ut crescant, ut opes : — 

These are they to whom success is ruin ; to whom, the con- 
summation of their wishes is destruction. For myself, I know 
not where I should seek, without the Umits of positive destitu- 
tion, for a more pitiable object than a wealthy, ignorant, selfish, 
and aged man. The petty vexations inseparable from his 
condition, are infinitely more disquieting than those of other 
men ; for disappointment has given to each of them a keener 
edge. In the exuberance of his folly, he had fancied, that 
after the labour of a life, its proceeds would surely purchase 



23 



happiness ; but he has found, when too late, that the article 
has no price, or, that if it has, his wealth cannot purchase it ; 
he has spent his strength in hemng out cisterns which can hold 
no water ; and in failure of those resources which alone could 
promise enjo3^ment, he is found to be the self-devoted victim 
of avarice or sensuahty : the rust of his wealth has cankered 
his charities ; its amount has dammed up all access to his 
heart ; his affections centre in himself ; the world soon learn?! 
to reciprocate his temper ; and when it does, the conviction 
that he is a mere cumberer of earth is so insufferable, that, 
to escape its anguish, he is willing to " steep liis senses in forget- 
fuhiess," and renounce the consciousness of his existence. 

There is another error which duty compels me to notice, and 
which in the relation in which I stand, it would be unpardona- 
ble to allow to pass without remark. It cannot have escaped 
your observation, that education has lately assumed a new and 
interesting aspect : the great body of the public seem to have 
awakened to a sense of its vital importance ; but, as in all 
other great revolutions of opinion ; there is great danger that 
the magnitude of the interests involved in the issue, will put at 
hazard the principles on which the opinion is founded. The 
necessity of the diffusion of education is universally conceded ; 
on this point, there is not room for any diversity of sentiment ; 
but the question ought not to have respect to amount, so much 
as to quahty. Plans of instiuction, without doubt, well, but 
not wisely intended, have been suggested, and by men, too, 
whose measure of acquirement, whose zeal in the cause of sci- 
ence, and whose liberality and public spiiit justly entitle them 



24 



to public confidence, which, if carried out, are calculated to de- 
preciate the standard of literary quahfication. It would seem, 
that the great desideratum in conducting an education, was the 
economy of time ; as if it were possible to make a finished 
scholar in a period indefinitely short, compared with that here- 
tofore required, by combining application with the excision of 
certain branches, till now considered essential, and introducing 
the labour-saving machinery of science ; manuals, dictionaries, 
(fee. The opinion proceeds, on the assumption that men of 
science may not only be multiplied to an indefinite extent, but 
that they may be manufactured with the greatest facility; 
and the necessary consequence will be an absolute dearth of 
great men, and an increase beyond any reasonable demand, of 
such as possess but its show, and its tinselled exterior. 

Men differ as widely in theii' intellectual capacities as in their 
physical constitutions ; both the one and the other are heredit- 
able ; they are transmitted fi'om generation to generation : it is 
in vain to attempt to search out causes which are so intimately 
connected with our very being ; it is sufficient for us that it is so ; 
and it is our duty to take them into account in all our plans 
of education. All the gradations of mental capacity, are condi- 
tions natural, -which in most cases may be modified and im- 
proved ; and that they are thus modified and improved by educa- 
tion, no reasonable man will permit himself to doubt ; but, at 
the same time, it must be conceded, that they exert such an 
influence on education itself, as to render the same measure of 
it infinitely more productive in some persons than in others. 
There are idiosyncrasies of mind, if I may be allowed the ex- 



25 



pression, which, like the idiosyncrasies of the body, are rebel- 
lious to certain agents, and require to be studied before their 
administration be attempted ; a poet, a mathematician, a 
painter, a lawyer, physician, or a forensic orator, are not, with 
equal facility, prepared from the same materials. Indeed, so 
obvious and apparent is this native difference in mental capa- 
city, that it has been attempted to found a distinct branch of 
science upon it, and however much the enthusiastic supporters 
of phrenology may have indulged in fanciful details, it must be 
confessed, that the apology for the doctrine is, that it has its 
foundation in nature. To a want or attention to those inhe- 
rent differences in the minds of pupils, it is to be attributed, 
that much labour is lost, and much mind dissipated, in fruit- 
less attempts to make general scholars ; and to the same 
cause may be referred the various weU-intentioned attempts to 
compensate for the deficiences of tastes for science, by charging 
them upon the extraordinary measure of labour necessary to 
their acquisition. 

That which renders the opinion more dangerous to the in- 
terests of literature, is the contemplated abandonment of the 
study of the dead languages, as unnecessary and embarrass- 
ing ; whereas, the truth is, that so far from being justly so 
chargeable, they are essential to the acquisition of aU science. 
If the question be, whether a perfect English education may 
not be acquired without a knowledge of those languages, and as 
such it has been seriously entertained, it has scarcely sufficient 
merits to admit discussion : if it be whether a scientific education 
may not be thus acquiied, it is absolutely destitute of support. 



26 



The argument on any unsettled point, must, of necessity be 
short; where the reasons are all facts ; I shall, therefore, dispose 
of it in a summary manner. Those languages are the sub- 
strata, the only settled foundations of our own ; without being 
conscious of our indebtedness, we are taught them in the nur- 
sery ; without their assistance, the Enghsh language would 
possess no stability, since to them we are obhged to refer in or- 
der to settle much doubtful construction. The roots of a large 
proportion of the words used in speaking or writing, if we ex- 
cept only names of things and connecting terms, are Greek 
and Latin ; and if we should strike from our language all 
words thence derived, we would so impoverish it, that we 
should find ourselves not only unable to write intelligibly, but 
utterly unable to hold a common conversation. In order to 
test this question, let it be submitted to experiment ; let any 
person take up any single page of the works of Johnson, or 
any other English classic since his time ; nay, if necessary, 
to render the experiment conclusive, let him travel back 
as far as the days of Addison and Swift, and strike out 
aU the words immediately derived from those languages, 
and then attempt to fill the blanks thus made by words 
synonimous, if possible, but acknowledging no such re- 
lation; and if he does not acknowledge his inability, he 
will possess more wit or more vanity than belongs to the 
share of ordinary men, however well they may have been edu- 
cated. 

The work of translation is the most effective means to ac- 
quire a competent knowledge of our own language : for the 



27 



powers of words, as well as the grammatical accuracy of con- 
struction, is thus attained. The time devoted to the study of 
the dead languages is usually that period when the judgment 
of the pupil cannot be sufficiently matured to be profitably ap- 
phed to the study of the more abstruse sciences ; and let it be 
recollected by all who have given their attention to the mere 
acquisition of these languages, that they have necessarily im- 
bibed a large portion of general knowledge which is connect- 
ed with, and in truth, inseparable from the very structure of 
the learned tongues, such, for example, as ancient history, 
biography, geography, morals, philosophy, and the analogies 
which connect these tongues ^vith his own ; for, it is impossi- 
ble to suppose that the mind, by any discipline, could be 
made to apply itself to the acquisition of words apart from 
their necessary connexion with things, and as vehicles of 
thought. Again — those languages are, emphatically, the 
glossaries of aU science, and without their assistance, their 
technicalities could not be understood, without the continued 
reference to dictionaries, very defective frequently in defini- 
tion, and oftentimes very erroneous. In place, therefore, of 
being able advantageously to dispense with them in our plans 
of education, they are, in very truth, essential ; and if there 
are any studies entitled to the appellation of labour-saving 
studies^ they are those of the Greek and Latin languages. 

The contagion of this opinion's having relation to the eco- 
nomy of time, is calculated to have a blighting influence on 
those professions heretofore considered learned^ and, it is 
much to be feared, that if it be not seasonably checked, the epi- 



28 



thet as respects two of them at least, will apply rather to the 
character which gihould attach, and formerly did attach, to 
them, than to that which they will in fact sustain. Its neces- 
sary consequence will be their absolute conversion into mere 
trades. 

But independently of their uses, as auxihary to the attain- 
ment of all science, and this is the last remark I shall make ; 
the peculiar influence of their study on the moral character, is 
so important, and so well marked, as not to escape the most 
ordinary observation — a system of literary ethics^ if I may 
be permitted the Yise of the term, is simultaneously acquired 
without effort, and indeed insensibly, which, in the absence 
of a more rigid moial, studied as a science, serves in its stead ; 
and in connexion with it, imparts a spirit of liberality, of can- 
dour, ingenuousness, and correct taste, which we may in vain 
search for, unless in the walks of literature ; and these effects 
are permanent. 



Qwo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem 
Testa diu. 



Here I would close this address, already protracted beyond 
the ordinary limits ; but I have a duty to perform in behalf of 
the'alumni, which it would be as unpardonable to omit, as it is 
grateful to my feeUngs to discharge. Since our last anniver- 
sary meeting, death has been among us ; and, as if to make a 
mock of all human confidence, he has removed three of our as- 
sociates, whose departure we least anticipated. The Rev. 



29 



Edmund D. Griffin, in the blossom of manhood, was thus re- 
moved. He was an alumnus of more than ordinary promise : 
during his whole course of collegiate studies, he led his 
class, and was ever distinguished among his fellows as a lover 
of learning, for its own sake. Set aside from common to holy 
uses early, he devoted himself to the ministry of reconcilia- 
tion^ with a zeal, abihty, and piety, which, while they prepared 
him for heaven, did their work in two ways, and expedited its 
consummation by sapping the foundations of his health; and 
at the age of twenty-five, he finished his earthly career. His 
ardour and his diligence in the pursuit of his studies, may be 
inferred from the fact, that he left at his decease, manuscripts, 
which would form at least six octavo volumes, a selection 
fi-om which, it is understood, will shortly be pubhshed, under 
the supervision of one of his intimate fiiends. With a mind 
pure, a disposition amiable, and an intellect well balanced by 
the study of unerring truth ; under a reserved and retiring de- 
portment, was hidden a warm and affectionate heart, and the 
trustees of this institution paid nothing more than a just tri- 
bute to his worth, when they appointed him to fill the vacancy 
created by the necessary absence of the Rev. Dr. M'Vickar, 
professor of moral and intellectual philosophy, rhetoric, belles- 
lettres, and political economy in this college. 

Another alumnus, Dr. John Watts, I knew well ; his eulo- 
gimn has been pronounced by a fiiend who knew him better, 
and his character is now the property of the public. Elevated 
by those who have the direction in chief of all the literary 
concerns of our state, to the highest honour of his profession, 



30 

he did not disappoint their expectation ; and, as President of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons in this city, he main- 
tained a reputation for probity and skill in the science to 
which he was devoted, equally honourable to them and to 
himself. 

Of the other, I knew but little personally ; but that Ht- 
tle was enough to make me regret that I had not knoAvn 
more. I never was acquainted with an individual whose close 
intimacy was more to be desired than the late Bishop Hobart ; 
but the points of his character were much too prominent and 
obvious to require an intimacy to enable us to appreciate them. 
He was not an alumnus of this college ; Princeton claims 
him as her son, and is honoured in the relation ; for a fairer 
name is not inscribed on the pages of her Album. His zeal 
in the cause of science, his ardent devotion to the interests and 
the honour of our Alma Mater, and his effective exertions in 
her behalf, on every occasion where exertion was required, 
have imposed on us obligations, which, as they cannot be dis- 
charged, can never be forgotten. He was many years a trus- 
tee, and in that relation his counsel marked by discretion, and 
his decision tempered by paidence, and both controlled by an 
abiding sense of the responsibility of his station, gave hun 
such an influence in the board of which he was a member, as no 
person before him possessed. Ardently attached to his friends, 
amiable in his deportment to strangers, and courteous to all, he 
was the delight of every circle in which he moved. Possess- 
ing an intellect of the first order, disciplined by habits of study, 
and improved under the direction of the best instructors, he 



31 



was peculiarly fitted by his education for the arduous duties he 
was called to discharge. His moral constitution was not less 
admirably adapted to qualify him for the various emergencies 
in which he was called to act. Though sanguine, prompt, 
and decisive, he possessed an acuteness of discernment, a 
measure of prudence, and a forecast of consequences, which 
rendered those qualities, which, in ordinary men, are danger- 
ous attributes, the most harmless, while they were the most 
efficient instruments of incalculable good. The various con- 
stituents which form the character of an estimable man in public 
life, an amiable one in private life, and above aU, the Chris- 
tian, in all the relations of life, were in him so admirably com- 
bined, that while none were in excess, none were deficient ; and 
it will be transmitted to posterity as an exemplar which can 
never lose its influence. By this coUege, his death is deeply 
to be regretted, for he was its ardent and efficient advocate. 
To the church over which he presided with so much dignity 
and so much meekness, so much devotion and so much con- 
science of duty, with so much zeal and so much ability, his 
loss is irreparable ; and he upon whom his mantle has fallen, 
may, like the man of God of old, when with his eyes of flesh 
h# saw the translation of his master, exclaim in the bitterness 
of his bereavement, and when a sense of anticipated responsi- 
bilities weighed down his spirit and checked his utterance, 
a my Father, my Father, the chariots of Israel, and the 
horsemen thereof !" 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

029 929 256 3^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

III 



029 929 256 3 




